DIY: Removing Gel Nails At Home

Two weeks ago, I treated myself to my third manicure ever! After two weeks of having my spring coral gel manicure, it was time to get them off! I was 1) sick/bored of the color and 2) missing doing my own nails. Also, it was just time. A few nails were starting to chip. A nails enthusiast like me cannot stand chipping! For me, a slight chip demands a retouch or a do-over. 

The first time I got a gel manicure, my friend encouraged me to just eventually peel the gel off and so I did. After doing so, I saw the damage it had done! The polish had taken the first layer (nail skin?) off my nail. Not good!

This time around, I decided to YouTube some DIY tricks to remove gel at home. I found +NewBeauty Magazine's video and followed the directions given what I have. 

Step by step, I'll walk you though the process:

SUPPLIES:

What you'll need:

- Nail polish remover

- Cotton balls

- Nail filer

- Foil

- Tweezers (not pictured)

The video called for a cuticle pusher. I didn't have one so I made due with dull tweezers

FOIL:

Cut the foil into 10 squares. As you can see, mine are not evenly cut.

THE NAILS:

So I know this picture looks awful. I had already started the process of removing the gel nails when I realized I should document this for a blog post. Here, my nails are buffed out with my nail filer. That's why my fingers look quite dry and why the gel shine is gone.

Before I started this DIY test, my initial plan was to peel the gel as you'll see from my right hand. After I saw the beating my nail took from that peel, I decided to find a better way to do it.

By the way, the silver and the gold polish are regular polish. When my gel nails started to grow out, I hated that gap so I filled it in with nail polish to create a reverse French tip.

FOILING:

As recommended by the woman in the video, I pulled apart my cotton ball in half as half is sufficient. I soaked the cotton ball in nail polish remover. I laid the cotton ball on my nail. With the square foil, I wrapped my nails then squeezedthe foil to tighten and secure the foil around my finger. Doing this all made a mess of polish remover dripping down my arms...egh. I definitely over soaked the cotton.

I do wish I had bigger squares of foil. A few fell off my finger because there was not enough foil to tightly secure the cotton ball.

Recommended time is 10 - 15 minutes. 

REMOVE FOIL

Nearly 20 minutes later, this is how my nails looked like. Gorgeous, right? haha. So gross.

You can see that the edges were loosened and had lifted up. I thought it was going to be an easy peel. But this is what the cuticle pusher is for. The gel is softened so that you can lightly scrape the gel off. I used dull tweezers in lieu of a cuticle pusher.

FINAL PRODUCT

Ta da! These are my nails buffed, washed and lotioned (soaking in polish remover made my fingers dry and pruney).

I didn't get every last tidbit of gel off, but I got the majority of it off. I am pleased with the results.

As much as I love gel nails, it is definitely work and a process to take off. Though it's not too too bad, it definitely makes me love and appreciate doing my own nails with regular polish at home :)

Here's the easy to follow video that I used for reference:

Have you ever tried removing gel nails at home?

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